What they don't mention is many (most) of these women were prostitutes in Thailand to start with. The number of men that fall in love with "bar girls" is amazing. Not to mention those that go there specifically looking to recruit prostitutes for their shady massage parlors back home.

ShawnDoc:What they don't mention is many (most) of these women were prostitutes in Thailand to start with. The number of men that fall in love with "bar girls" is amazing. Not to mention those that go there specifically looking to recruit prostitutes for their shady massage parlors back home.

FTFA - "70 percent of the 59 massage parlours it visited recently in Oslo offered sexual services to clients". How do I get a job like this?

BTW, looking out my San Francisco hotel window (In the "Financial District") at several pink neon lit 24 hr. "Oriental Massage" establishments and L'Amour Lounge. I may have to go out and do some "field research" to compare my results vs. those in Norway. Stay tuned....

omgwtfbbq69:FTFA - "70 percent of the 59 massage parlours it visited recently in Oslo offered sexual services to clients". How do I get a job like this?

BTW, looking out my San Francisco hotel window (In the "Financial District") at several pink neon lit 24 hr. "Oriental Massage" establishments and L'Amour Lounge. I may have to go out and do some "field research" to compare my results vs. those in Norway. Stay tuned....

When I was last in San Fran a few years ago, I got put up in this Eurotrash hotel off the Tenderloin (and had to walk to the financial district). The ambiance was... interesting. Where are you at?

adeist69:Fano: My understanding is that in America, such arrangements result in a 10% divorce rate. Not sure where the article has any real numbers at all.

So it's no different than divorce rates among other demographics in America, right? Quite possibly lower, even.

That's what I was getting at, according to "mail order bride enthusiasts" the success rate for marriage is 90%. That's way higher than the 50% for typical marriages here. Now, one may argue the bride is at a disadvantage, or is an Umfufu. The article just baldly states that Thai women are tricked into marriage in Norway then tossed aside, with a brief remark about massage parlors that doesn't quite tie in, other than to say Thai women working in massage parlors commonly perform sex acts. This is a perfect fark article. Short on any facts, lots of insinuation, asian poontang, and an inflammatorily misleading headline.

We had a fantastic dinner at a Vietnamese place near our house. The owner greeted me with with 'I see you long time' but still forgot the side plates.The table next to us was sat with a young couple, husband obviously miltary and his beautiful young wife and baby. She spoke very little Engrish. The guy seemed toi be aware of why he was married to such a beautiful girl and was doting on both her and the daughter.It seemed to be working for them.

ShawnDoc:What they don't mention is many (most) of these women were prostitutes in Thailand to start with. The number of men that fall in love with "bar girls" is amazing. Not to mention those that go there specifically looking to recruit prostitutes for their shady massage parlors back home.

I rather suspect you're right.

AbbeySomeone:We had a fantastic dinner at a Vietnamese place near our house. The owner greeted me with with 'I see you long time' but still forgot the side plates.The table next to us was sat with a young couple, husband obviously miltary and his beautiful young wife and baby. She spoke very little Engrish. The guy seemed toi be aware of why he was married to such a beautiful girl and was doting on both her and the daughter.It seemed to be working for them.

When you meet someone while deployed that at least gives you quite a bit of time to get to know them. It won't prevent culture shock problems and cases where she knows it's a green card marriage but he doesn't, but it goes a long way to helping. Also, someone who has been deployed is going to be better at handling the culture shock than someone who has lived here all their life.

ShawnDoc:What they don't mention is many (most) of these women were prostitutes in Thailand to start with.

That was my first thought.

The second thought was that it is far less likely that Bjorn was going to dupe some Thai whore into marriage and then dump her in Norway than the other way round. Thai girls can be quite calculating and sophisticated. It's where they get their knack for whoredom. I'd bet a lot of the ones who marry European men do so with the object of taking their business where they can make a lot more money.

Cambodians don't strike me as being as mercenary as Thais, but I'm reminded of an incident here. About a year ago I was in a cafe in Cambodia. This was in the red light area, but it was breakfast time so the whores were mostly off duty. Anyway, I'm waiting for my order and listening to this big, loud, middle-aged Aussie chatting up the waitresses and boss-lady. He's showering them with compliments and showing off his impressively expensive camera and sharing the details of his life with them (and everyone else in earshot) and they're taking it politely.

Finally, he comes to the fact that he married a Cambodian lady. But when he took her back to Australia she went crazy and ran away. So he married another Cambodian lady, and she did the same thing. And a third. He married three Cambodian girls and they all ran off on him so now he's back in Phnom Penh looking for true love; and the ladies are all smiling and nodding sympathetically, and I'm doing a real-life facepalm and thinking of the gas station scene in The Jerk ("These cans are defective!") That was a year ago, and while we're all no doubt chiefly wondering if he's found his true life partner yet, it's worth asking what his three ex-wives are doing for a living in Australia now.

Gyrfalcon:ShawnDoc: What they don't mention is many (most) of these women were prostitutes in Thailand to start with. The number of men that fall in love with "bar girls" is amazing. Not to mention those that go there specifically looking to recruit prostitutes for their shady massage parlors back home.

So that makes it A-OK?

No, it just means that there are nuances to the situation that makes *fixing* it more difficult, especially if you don't understand that these may be women predisposed to looking towards prostitution for income.

Gyrfalcon:ShawnDoc: What they don't mention is many (most) of these women were prostitutes in Thailand to start with. The number of men that fall in love with "bar girls" is amazing. Not to mention those that go there specifically looking to recruit prostitutes for their shady massage parlors back home.

So that makes it A-OK?

That's not what I said. But it certainly changes the narrative of the story as well as what options to use to combat it.

ShannonKW:ShawnDoc: What they don't mention is many (most) of these women were prostitutes in Thailand to start with.

That was my first thought.

The second thought was that it is far less likely that Bjorn was going to dupe some Thai whore into marriage and then dump her in Norway than the other way round. Thai girls can be quite calculating and sophisticated. It's where they get their knack for whoredom. I'd bet a lot of the ones who marry European men do so with the object of taking their business where they can make a lot more money.

Cambodians don't strike me as being as mercenary as Thais, but I'm reminded of an incident here. About a year ago I was in a cafe in Cambodia. This was in the red light area, but it was breakfast time so the whores were mostly off duty. Anyway, I'm waiting for my order and listening to this big, loud, middle-aged Aussie chatting up the waitresses and boss-lady. He's showering them with compliments and showing off his impressively expensive camera and sharing the details of his life with them (and everyone else in earshot) and they're taking it politely.

Finally, he comes to the fact that he married a Cambodian lady. But when he took her back to Australia she went crazy and ran away. So he married another Cambodian lady, and she did the same thing. And a third. He married three Cambodian girls and they all ran off on him so now he's back in Phnom Penh looking for true love; and the ladies are all smiling and nodding sympathetically, and I'm doing a real-life facepalm and thinking of the gas station scene in The Jerk ("These cans are defective!") That was a year ago, and while we're all no doubt chiefly wondering if he's found his true life partner yet, it's worth asking what his three ex-wives are doing for a living in Australia now.

I just took a trip to Cambodia and Thailand. You are correct that Cambodia is not nearly as mercenary as Thailand (not just in the red light district). Cambodia was a nowhere, then embroiled in civil war until the '70s, and they spent the next 20 years rebuilding and removing land mines. They're still new to the worldwide tourism industry. The oldest bar on Siem Reap's historic Pub Street was founded in 1998. The overwhelming impression I got in Cambodia is that people are just happy you bothered to show up and spend a few bucks.

Thailand had a lot more cynical attitude towards tourists and their tourist money. If anyone is interested in going to Cambodia, try to go in the next 5 years or so, before they get jaded.

My boss, Mark, has several stories concerning Korean bar girls (he served in Korea, but not during the Korean war). The story usually centers around a new, somewhat naive soldier and a Korean bar girl. It basically goes like this; naive soldier gets a 2 day pass for the weekend and decides it's a good idea to go downtown. Naive soldier gets a few drinks in him; and finds a Korean bar girl to spend his time with. Money changes hands; any number of deitys are invoked. Naive soldier falls "in love". Korean bar girl says she's going to leave her life in escorting and come home with him. At this point; naive soldier thinks she's repented and is only with him. It is at this point in the story that the buddies of the naive soldier intervene. They take naive soldier downtown on a day he wouldn't normally go downtown. They'd find "his girl" on a street corner and ask the naive soldier what she was doing. The naive soldier would say something to the effect of, "she's breaking my heart!".

ShawnDoc:Gyrfalcon: ShawnDoc: What they don't mention is many (most) of these women were prostitutes in Thailand to start with. The number of men that fall in love with "bar girls" is amazing. Not to mention those that go there specifically looking to recruit prostitutes for their shady massage parlors back home.

So that makes it A-OK?

That's not what I said. But it certainly changes the narrative of the story as well as what options to use to combat it.